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Albanese’s government stumbled into doing the right thing by the Iranian women’s soccer team — but only after Trump, social media, and public pressure forced their hand. Three wins, zero grace.

We used to describe Scott Morrison‘s “leadership” as middle management.

Anthony Albanese isn’t just carrying that same flag; he’s turned the Prime Minister’s office into a safe space for the lunatic bureaucracy.

It’s bad, Joe Biden “build back better”  — “anyone not a Democrat is a domestic terrorist” — bad.

That said, Philippians 4:8.

Albo gets credit where credit is due.

Backing Trump’s Strike on Iran

This week, the Australian Labor PM got at least three things right.

He cautiously backed the United States’ decision to hit Islamists in Iran before they could succeed in hitting the United States.

Put simply, the Trump administration took down Khamenei before Khamenei could kill Trump.

As Australian journalist Miranda Devine confirmed in The New York Post, a Pakistani Muslim who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump was on the Iranian regime’s payroll.

The accused “told jurors the IRGC told him to attend a Republican rally as part of his ‘mission’, and FBI agent Jacqueline Smith testified that he told her the Butler attack ‘was the same thing he was sent here to do.’”

Although there is no apparent evidence linking Crook’s shots, which very nearly killed Trump, to Iran’s Islamic regime, the approach, agenda, and objective align.

The Iranian Women’s Soccer Team: A Reluctant Rescue

The second right decision Albanese made this week was sheltering the defiant Iranian women’s soccer team.

However, this credit comes with a caveat.

It took a series of high-profile online engagements to get Albanese to move.

Had Donald Trump not petitioned Albo on their behalf at two in the morning, the women would likely have been beheaded by now.

To be fair to the PM, even Trump might not have stepped in had Queensland activist Drew Pavlou’s X post talking about the soccer team’s plight not gone viral.

Yet, stepping in is exactly what the United States President did.

Trump put his diplomatic foot down.

He shared Pavlou’s X post on Truth Social with the simple caption, “ASYLUM.”

The US president then called Albanese out, stating that “Australia was making a terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the Iranian women’s soccer team to be forced back onto the plane.

“They will most likely be killed,” Trump added, stating, “Don’t do it, Mr Prime Minister, give ASYLUM.”

This was followed by Trump offering to grant asylum if Albanese wouldn’t.

In rare agreement, Trump’s claims about the threat to life and limb were supported by “Never Trumpers”, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).

They revealed in a piece published on 6 March that Iranian state television had called the women “wartime traitors.”

Added here were demands for the women’s soccer team to “be dealt with more severely.”

After giving evidence that later backed Trump’s claims, the SMH concluded that “there was a massive target on their back.”

Trump Calls Albo at 2 AM — and Australia Listens

Outside social media, the President rang Albanese (allegedly waking him) to discuss the matter and then some.

On 9 March, Donald Trump took to social media saying he had spoken with Albo.

“I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it!”

For Albanese, the management — or mismanagement, depending on which way you lean — of the entire situation was a painful series of hits and misses.

Maybe this is why Trump didn’t ring Albo to consult before launching Operation Fury?

This segues nicely into Albo’s third golf clap.

He inadvertently got the President of the United States to say, “God Bless Australia.”

Thanking Albo in the same social media post, Trump said,

“The Prime Minister is doing a very good job with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!”

Seeming to downplay Trump and Pavlou’s roles, the official Labor Party narrative reads a little differently.

“President Trump rang me this morning just before 2:00 AM,” Albo told reporters.

That call, which Albanese described as “very positive,” was “primarily about the Iranian soccer team.”

He then recalled telling Trump the government was already looking after their safety.

Consequently, the Australian Federal Police issued a statement twelve hours later, saying they were “providing assistance to relevant agencies and Home Affairs in relation to the Iranian women’s soccer team.”

Labor’s Bureaucratic Backflip

As Professor David Flint pointed out via The Spectator Australia, Albanese’s reassurances don’t stack up.

The PM’s apparent declaration to Trump that “Labour was already on it” is contradicted by a refusal to read the room.

He was very quiet before Trump took the matter up on social media, then picked up the phone.

It appears as though Albo’s (we can reasonably assume, highly paid) Public Relations influencers were a little “delulu with no solulu.” (See here.)

Did they shrug off Pavlou’s viral reporting and the massive response it was receiving out of fear of losing the so-called “Muslim Vote”?

To quote Australian music legend Angry Anderson and his protest on Facebook,

“Labor will trade lives for votes!

“People need to know that if the Iranian women’s soccer team are forced to leave, they have been abandoned by the Labor government, they should be granted asylum.

“Albo, Bourke (sic) and Wong will have blood on their hands and we must all share the shame!”

Then there’s the thorny issue of Labor’s Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Matt Thistlewaite.

Before Trump woke Albo up at 2 a.m., Thistlewaite had asserted in a now-damning Sky News interview that Labor would give “no preferential treatment in terms of visas.”

“There would be no special circumstances granted to anyone that’s competing in the Asian Women’s Cup,” he determined.

For every ounce of good here, there’s a pound of political compost.

Once social media lit up, and Trump caught wind of the women’s soccer team being dragged back to face Iran’s murderous imams, Labor was forced to act.

They didn’t just alter course.

The Canberra circus deployed the bureaucratic backflip, smiled, waved and hoped none of us would notice.